Dr. Emmett Brown
Emmett Lathrop "Doc" Brown, Ph.D., is a fictional character in the Back to the Future trilogy in which he is the inventor of the first time machine, built out of a DeLorean sports car. The character is portrayed by Christopher Lloyd in all three films, as well as in the live action sequences of the animated series. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta in the animated series. The character's appearance and mannerisms are loosely inspired by Leopold Stokowski and Albert Einstein.1 In 2008, Dr. Emmett Brown was selected by Empire magazine as one of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time, ranking at #20.2 Contents Biographyedit Emmett refers to himself as "a student of all sciences" and is depicted as a talented inventor. His homes in 1985, 1955, and 1885 are shown to contain various labor-saving gadgets. He appears to be heavily influenced by scientists of previous eras, naming successive pet dogs Copernicus and Einstein, and having portraits of Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein in his laboratory. His favorite author is Jules Verne and his family name was originally "von Braun" before World War I. Emmett's family moved to Hill Valley from Germany in 1908. Although initially wealthy because of his inheritance, he spent his entire family fortune on his time travel project. When the Brown mansion was destroyed by fire in 1962 and the property sold to developers, Doc subsequently resided in the mansion's garage. Once broke, he established a privately owned business to offer 24-hour scientific services, building ingenious devices for his customers. Emmett's work appears to be highly regarded, enough for him to win an award for his work. However, he is shown as absent-minded at times, and various statements by other characters inhabiting Hill Valley indicate that he is generally regarded as strange, eccentric, or insane. Being very loud and sprightly, he often speaks with wide-eyed expressions and broad gestures ("Great Scott!" being one of his well-known catchphrases) and tends to be overly verbose in his delivery, referring in one case to a school dance as a "rhythmic ceremonial ritual". Doc and Marty met several years prior to the events of the first time travel experiment when Marty, out of curiosity, sneaked into Doc's lab after being warned by his parents to stay away from him. Happy to be revered as 'cool', Doc hired Marty as his part-time lab assistant.3 In the original timeline, in contrast with Marty's shy and unassertive father, George McFly, Doc is a supportive and open-minded mentor for Marty. Doc's positive influence in turn allows Marty to mentor George in 1955, which appears to encourage George's later success as a novelist, and help him become a better husband and father. One line in particular, "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything," originates from Doc. Marty repeats it to George in 1955, who repeats it back to Marty in the post time travel 1985. Doc has been involved with illegal and criminal enterprises (albeit as a means to obtain items for his inventions he could not purchase legally) but he is naive and care-free about the consequences of his actions. He excitedly tells Marty how he cheated Libyan terrorists out of stolen plutonium: "They wanted me to build them a bomb, so I took their plutonium and, in turn, gave them a shoddy bomb casing full of used pinball machine parts!" Despite being intelligent and logical for the most part, Doc is somewhat naive at times about the unknown possible uses of his time machine, initially actively explores the course of the world's future and tries to alter the past or future of the principal characters to improve their lives. However, events lead him to conclude that time travel is too dangerous for humankind. His conviction initially strengthened when he realizes that he has unwittingly altered history by preventing the death of Clara Clayton in 1885; he concludes that the time machine has "caused nothing but disaster" and asks Marty to destroy it once he returns to his own time. Nonetheless, Doc pursues a romantic relationship with Clara despite the risks of further disrupting the timeline. However, after having been left behind in 1885 when Marty departs in the DeLorean for 1985, Doc starts a family with Clara; the couple have two sons, Jules and Verne. He eventually builds another time machine out of a steam locomotive, and the Browns return to 1985 in order to pick up Einstein before setting out for another adventure. Other appearancesedit * Back to the Future: The Animated Series, a sequel to the film trilogy, features Dan Castellaneta as the voice of Doc Brown, with Christopher Lloyd appearing in live-action segments. * Lloyd filmed new material for Back to the Future: The Ride, directed by Douglas Trumbull. The ride serves as a sequel to the films, following Doc Brown and his founding of the 'Institute of Future Technology'. He invites tourists to embark on a time-travelling adventure in his newly made eight passenger DeLorean. The ride was included on the trilogy's 2009 Blu-Ray re-release.4 * Lloyd appeared as Doc Brown in the 1990 Warner Bros. program The Earth Day Special. * Lloyd voiced Doc Brown in Back to the Future: The Game, developed by Telltale Games as a sequel to the film series. * Lloyd voices an animated Doc Brown as a cameo in The Simpsons Ride, in a reference to the closure of the Back to the Future ride. * Doc Brown appeared in the Universal Studios show, Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure giving Bill and Ted a ride back to the future due to Ted misplacing their own time machine. * Lloyd made a cameo appearance as Doc Brown in the 2014 film A Million Ways to Die in the West, where the protagonist sees him covertly working on the DeLorean in a barn. * Lloyd voiced Doc Brown in the 2015 video game Lego Dimensions, as well as playing the character in a live-action advertisement for the game. * Lloyd reprised the role of Doc Brown in the 2015 direct-to-video short film Doc Brown Saves the World, which reveals that he erased the future witnessed in Back to the Future II as the various inventions of that time led to mass obesity and Griff Tannen triggering a nuclear holocaust. * Lloyd played himself portraying Doc Brown in the 2016 Funny or Die satire film Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal: The Movie. Category:Movie characters Category:Characters Category:Non-Disney characters Category:Living characters